Tuesday, June 15, 2010

GFIW: Talenti Gelato, June 15

I know that with trying to keep weight off I should not be promoting something so decadent and not in line with my diet, but this is just too good. I bought this lovely Talenti black cherry gelato because 1) I love the packaging; and 2) the back clearly labels it not only gluten-free, but also HFCS free and hormone free, among other happy classifications.

I actually didn't even buy this for me, but for my daughter, and every night as I would give her dessert, I would sneak a spoonful, and the black cherry is just so delicious with a lovely creamy texture with crushed cherry swirled into the cream.

All flavors, except for the caramel cookie crunch are gluten-free. They also carry several flavors of sorbet.

Talenti can be found in many national grocery stores chains, including Whole Foods and Target.

4 comments:

Love your blog, but want you to know I had a gluten reaction within 6 hours after eating the Talenti Double Dark Chocolate gelato today and have been strictly gluten-free for at least 2 weeks. This gelato was beyond delicious by the way. I looked more closely at the ingredients and vermouth stood out to me.

This is what I learned from Wikipedia on vermouth: Spirits made without any grain such as brandy, wine, mead, cider, sherry, port, rum, tequila and vermouth generally do not contain gluten, although some vineyards use a flour paste to caulk the oak barrels in which wine is aged,[32] and other vineyards use gluten as a clarifying agent (though it's unclear whether gluten remains at the end of the clarification process).[33][34] Therefore, some coeliacs may wish to exercise caution. Liqueurs and pre-mixed drinks should be examined carefully for gluten-derived ingredients.

I have e-mailed the Talenti company with my concern and am awaiting their reply. I'm hoping they'll consider reformulating the flavor without the vermouth.

Thank you for your post, and sorry you didn't feel good. This is what my non-medical thoughts are....since you are at the beginning of your gluten-free journey, you may be reacting to other things besides gluten. This happened to me. When I was first starting off, the first 4 weeks, my intestines were finally absorbing things they haven't in a long time. I was getting horrible reactions to things like onions, dairy (especially ice cream sadly) and wine. They would all put my in horrible pain for hours. It wasn't until at about 4 weeks, I started slowly adding these things in again, and it was fine. But for that first month if I had any ice cream, I felt miserable.

I just had some Talenti last week and was fine. I also drink vodka sodas with semi-regularity, and don't have a problem, but everyone is different. Some people may not be able to tolerate liquor. My dr. at the University of Chicago confirmed as long as they are distilled liquors they are fine.

My guess...you are just not ready to have dairy yet. Wait 2 weeks, and try again.

Thanks for the tips! Just want to let you know the Talenti people responded already to my concern. They stated their product has tested gluten-free, but offered to test my gelato container for gluten. Unfortunately I tossed it, but I really appreciate this company's willingness to go the extra mile and investigate further. For now, I'll wait a few weeks as you suggest and try again with a small amount.